Postcards written as part of the Ides of Trump campaign. Photo: Courtesy Zack Kushner

Berkeley is probably the furthest thing from Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan’s mind right now, what with the the stinging defeat of the Republican healthcare bill, but Ryan is very much on the mind of Berkeley activist Zack Kushner. Kushner — no relation to Jared — is the mastermind of the successful Ides of Trump postcard-writing campaign whose goal was to mail 1 million postcards to the Trump White House on March 15.

As an encore, Kushner wants to mail 1 million postcards to House Speaker Paul Ryan on April 17.

“Ryan is enabling Donald Trump,” Kushner said last week. “He has the power to stop him; he could have the House investigate the Russia connection; he could organize House Republicans to block some of the more odious nominees — but he’s not doing any of that.”

The Ides of Trump started more or less accidentally, as a result of Kushner’s experience with the Oakland Women’s March on Jan. 21. And it quickly took on a life of its own.

“It’s an understatement to assume that I had thought everything through as well as I should have,” Kushner said, looking back.

What happened was this: on the day of the march, like thousands of other Berkeleyans, Kushner took his family to a local BART station and found himself in a line that was an hour long. His wife had a migraine, his toddler was in a stroller, and quickly lost a boot. How could they survive this march? For a while, they persisted: they made it onto the train, got to Oakland, and then found themselves squeezed among thousands of marchers. It was not a good situation for their young family, and they soon turned around and went back home.

But Kushner began wondering how many other people might have wanted to go to the march, but couldn’t attend because they were elderly, or disabled, or lived too far from public transportation.

“I thought there had to be a way for those people to be heard,” he said. “One of the things that made the march so incredible were all those signs, where each person wrote what was most important to them. I thought there had to be a creative way for people who couldn’t attend the march to still be able to resist.”

That is where the idea of the postcards came from.

“I thought people might want to do something more than sign a petition,” Kushner said.

Postcards. Photo: Courtesy Zack Kushner

So, the morning after the march, he woke up, wrote a few sentences, and put them up on Facebook. The concept: everyone should send one or more postcards on the same day — March 15 — making clear their resistance to Trump, with the goal to create a deluge of 1 million postcards addressed to the White House.

Kushner sent the initial page to a few friends, asking for some help with graphics and a banner. But one of his friends did not realize that the page was still in beta, and started sending it to all his friends.

Kushner, a contract writer and digital strategist in his mid-40s, said that he has lived through presidential administrations that he has vehemently disagreed with in the past, but he has never been an activist before. Donald Trump’s election changed all that.

“My interest is to get one specific person out of government, and that person is Donald Trump. He has no business running this country: he is not safe, he is not sane, and I am going to do everything I can to get rid of him.”

A week after that initial Facebook post, there were 10,000 people following the page, Kushner said.

A postcard writing party. Photo: Ides of Trump/Instagram

“It was huge, and it was growing. We built a Twitter page, signed up for Instagram, and starting moderating the Ides of Trump Facebook page,” he said. What started out as “a good idea among friends” became a “political campaign with legs” in a matter of days. “We were just doing everything we could to keep it going, to make the right decisions, and to learn. We did all of those things as quickly as possible, and we are now doing our best to pivot for a second round, which we hope will be successful in other ways.”

The Ides of Trump is now a three-person project consisting of Kushner; his friend Ted Sullivan, a television writer from Los Angeles; and a marketer from northern California called Jennifer Jones, who volunteered to build the website, but has yet to meet Kushner or Sullivan in person.

“We realized we had to do more than just ruin Donald Trump’s day”

When asked about his early expectations for the Ides of Trump, Kushner said it’s hard to remember, because so much has changed in his thinking in the past two months. “My original idea was just to keep the pressure on Donald Trump, to get under his skin, and to keep him from feeling comfortable for as long as possible,” he said. “But as the reality of his government set in, and the numbers of our followers started to really grow, we realized we had to do more than just ruin Donald Trump’s day.”

At some point, as enthusiasm for the Ides of Trump postcard campaign took off, Kushner began to think maybe his group really could generate a million postcards to Donald Trump. Postcards were sent from red states as well as blue states, and from countries as far flung as New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Spain and England. Kushner guesses that expats are largely responsible for the postcards that were written abroad, but he has no way of knowing who actually sent those cards.

In Berkeley, the Story Center held a postcard-writing event on March 15, and Berkeley residents contributed several hundred postcards to the national effort.

Kushner got most reports of postcard efforts through social media, but eventually discovered that most people who wrote postcards were older and did not have Facebook or Twitter accounts. He also found that most people wrote more than one postcard: the median was a dozen postcards a person, Kushner said.

Even dogs got in on the Ides of Trump act. Photo: Ides of Trump/Instagram

“I think people wrote multiple postcards for a variety of reasons. They found it to be a really cathartic experience: it made them feel really good to get this anger and frustration on paper, and then to send it away,” he said. People also enjoyed the social aspect of postcard writing parties.

“One of the most beautiful things about this campaign is that it’s chaotic,” he said. “Everybody feels free to say what they want to say in their own way. We are by design not printing postcards with messages on them. People are creating their own amazingly creative, funny postcards.” Many of those postcards have been posted on Facebook, and on the Ides of March website.

But as momentum and expectations grew, Facebook followers began to demand some accountability and feedback: how many postcards were actually delivered to the White House in the days around March 15? Was it really a million, or more, or less? They wanted answers, but Kushner said the exact number may be impossible to know. For one thing, presidential mail is delivered to a warehouse to be sorted, and the press is not allowed access to this warehouse. So it was impossible to get photos or a count of the number of postcards that were delivered, and there was no media coverage of the final results.

Kushner did some calculations, which he posted on Facebook and on the website, but in the final analysis it was an educated guess more than an actual count. (See a more detailed analysis.)

A war-chest to take on the House Speaker

As for Paul Ryan, normally he could not be influenced by people outside his district (other than wealthy donors), because usually only his constituents could vote him in or out of office. But in a unique twist, Kushner is suggesting that everyone who sends a postcard to Ryan also contribute a few dollars to a fund that will be used to support a Ryan challenger in 2018. The fact that no-one has yet declared for this race does not concern Kushner: he believes that the creation of a significant war chest will encourage candidates to take on the House leader and one-time vice-presidential hopeful.

The second target in the Ides of Trump campaign is House Speaker Paul Ryan. Photo: Ides of Trump/Facebook

“We are encouraging each postcard writer to indicate how much money they gave to this fund right on the postcard: we will print and sell stickers that say ‘I donated $1, $5, or $20,’” Kushner said. “We want Ryan to see a mountain of postcards from people who are motivated financially to take him down.” Since Kushner’s group has not yet created this fund, for now he is urging people to send money to existing organizations such as Swing Left, the ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Planned Parenthood, and EarthJustice.

And when it comes to tracking results, Kushner is hoping to get “better visuals” for the Ryan campaign, since Ryan’s mail is delivered to his congressional office in Wisconsin rather than an anonymous and well-guarded warehouse.

He is also asking those mailing postcards to use the hashtag #TheIdes, so the group can keep track of donations for this specific election.

Kushner said he is “trying to keep expectations reasonable” for this second campaign, “but what we don’t get done for this one we will do in the next one. We want to keep that resistance pressure up as much as possible.” People are already sending in suggestions for a May postcard recipient, but Kushner hasn’t made that decision yet. For now, his focus remains resolutely on Paul Ryan and a more visible mountain of postcards.

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Most Commented

swissms

We sent tons of pink postcards but never saw any media coverage. We have no idea how many cards were sent to the White House. If we are going to do this again, which I would like to see, we must have the media set up to cover the action.

EBGuy

Just curious, were any visa overstays or illegal border crossings involved?

Jane Ellis

Yes. Not sick.

Pietro Gambadilegno

Because the free-food programs are listed on the city of Berkeley web site and there are three meals a day every day of the week.

Ken M

Sending a postcard to a loved one can be an easy way to keep in touch and inform them about your most recent travels.

3rdGenBerkeleyan

so because one person “told you” it must be true?

3rdGenBerkeleyan

May I suggest that you use your “NOODLE” do you honestly think this nonsense will make even a tiny bit of difference? if you do get in line behind our council members and mayor while inserting your head in the sand…it sounds like you might be familiar with this task already.

Pietro Gambadilegno

they are more interested in puffing up their chests and making a symbolic stand instead of coming up with policies of substance that actually solve the problem.

Sounds like a perfect description of the tweeter-in-chief. Puffs up his chest and promise to repeal Obamacare. Then, when the time comes for policy, says “who knew health care could be so complicated.”

EBGuy

Should I be reading this more metaphorically? I definitely don’t think anyone should be going Brutus on the POTUS. Kushner claims: “he is not safe, he is not sane, and I am going to do everything I can to get rid of him.”

M.E. Lawrence

Nope. We’re all equal. You have your opinions and talents; I have mine. (I might be a better speller, but then editing and writing are my job.)

M.E. Lawrence

My 9 post card to Trump weren’t insulting; I just talked about my immigrant grandfather (wound up in Utah) and husband and what they achieved as U.S. citizens. Insults accomplish nothing.

$340K would not feed all the homeless for most of a year all across the country.

Ah yes, Berkeley hypocrisy in action. Protest what the rest of the country doesn’t do when you can’t even do it yourself.

lspanker

Another shining example of the clulelessness and immaturity of the Left. Looks like they want to lose in 2018 and 2020 as well…

Pietro Gambadilegno

My idea, as a starter, is that each of us should be consistent and each of us should stick to the point being discussed rather than making wild generalizations about all liberals or all conservatives. After we get to that point, it becomes possible to have a serious conversation.

Erica Etelson

Nice work, Zach. I sent 2 and will happily send another two plus money to boot Ryan out, especially if it’s a candidate endorsed by Brand New Congress.

Esquared

This is happening all over the country.

supersickandtired

actually it did go back and read the original post…

supersickandtired

Okay Einstein What is your idea? keep doing what we are doing? Liberals like it when people are dependent on government that way they keep voting for the democratic party.

Daniel

Ya, we get it, some of us are better than the rest of us.

#SantimonyMakesMeSick

Pietro Gambadilegno

Now you are saying:
If we provide housing for the homeless, they will flock to Berkeley in droves.
If we provide free food for the homeless, not a problem.
Makes lots of sense. If the city decided to spend an additional $340,000 on food for the homeless, I am sure you wouldn’t complain that they will flock to Berkeley, not at all.

Pietro Gambadilegno

Maybe that is what he was trying to say, but that is not what he said.

EBGuy

Am I the only one who finds this slightly sick? I sure didn’t think stuff like this was funny when Obama was President.

3rdGenBerkeleyan

I’ve never said “Berkeley Libs do too much for the homeless” What i have said was if we provide housing for the homeless here more homeless people will come in droves and soon we will be the homeless capital if we aren’t already…I’m just as compassionate and have just as much empathy as the next Berkeley resident/ taxpayer the difference is I don’t have foolish ideas with what to do with our tax dollars…Thanks for the passive aggressive attack though…I find it really interesting how my criticisms of individuals get deleted/ censored here but attacks on me seem to stay…just a little bias but what the hell else is new?

Pietro Gambadilegno

I notice you included links to the other organizations but left out the link to EarthJustice. Here is is:http://earthjustice.org/

Pietro Gambadilegno

Suddenly in favor of helping the homeless when it is a talking point against “Berkeley Libs.” Just wait until the next article about the homeless, and we will see the same commenters saying that Berkeley Libs do too much for the homeless.

goodkind

A great article about a great initiative. Berkeley proud of Berkeley ingenuity and Berkeley activism. Boo to the haters who always criticize. This is a great way to #StandIndivisible. Let’s #RunRyanOut of DC.

Daniel

And guess what, Mr. Trump doesn’t give a sh*t.

#$340,000!!

3rdGenBerkeleyan

Really want to make a difference? why not donate all of this money to
feeding the homeless instead of grandstanding crap like this that will
make no difference? just the stamps alone for 1million postcards is
$340,000 you could feed the homeless for most of the year with that
money…But Berkeley Libs would rather make fun of Trump instead of
actually doing something meaningful.